The career opportunities for students learning world languages range immensely, even for those with only a few years of exposure. Students who have taken one of the 14 languages at �鶹��ý���� alongside other studies are using their skills in fields from the arts to the sciences, from business to the humanities and health or social science fields. With the recent launch of the public �鶹��ý���� CHILL – Career Hub for International Language Learning, students can explore career applications for their languages at any point in their college experience.

The launch on December 11 brought together faculty, advisors, administrators, career counselors, study abroad officers, Modern Language Association representatives, and students, all of whom explored this new online resource, received career advising on how to foreground their languages, and entered raffles to win internationally themed prizes. A particular highlight of the hub is the collection of Languages on the Job videos made by recent graduates who use their languages in fields ranging from IT to manga editing, HR and beyond.

Students can also experiment with finding a fit for their own personal interests with the . Here, they can learn about a variety of jobs that require or encourage language knowledge or proficiency, including positions as international admissions counselor, change management team member, court interpreter, online content editor for gaming sites, and dozens more across fields.

�鶹��ý���� offers an innovative Language, Business & Culture interdisciplinary major with a capstone international experience. In addition, many students also choose to pursue a language as part of a double major or minor, or add on a faculty-led, summer, or semester-long study abroad experience in addition to their world language requirement to demonstrate their international flair.

Having explored another language shows employers in any field that you are ready to speak to partners on their terms and ready to manage new cultural situations.

At the launch, faculty members and College of Humanities and Social Sciences Career Services representatives reminded students of the importance of highlighting multilingual experiences on their resumés, and of connecting with alumni. They emphasized that language exploration reflects professional readiness, demonstrating cognitive flexibility, resourcefulness, and the ability to build bridges with collaborators here and abroad.

A faculty member told students, “New Jersey is so diverse. On the one hand, we have many immigrant groups here who need health, justice, and education professionals comfortable working in their languages. And at the same time, we are home to so many large and expanding international businesses where our students with language skills can make special connections with managers and international clients.” Students applying for positions in these fields attract supervisors’ attention when they bring language skills to the table.

The CHILL website shares the stories of recent graduates using their language skills to facilitate internal communications at Audi, to recruit international students at colleges, to work abroad in their expert fields, and more. Professor Elizabeth Emery, who served as Principal Investigator on the Modern Language Association Pathways Grant that helped fund this grant, notes that this launch is only the beginning: “So many doors open for graduates with language knowledge–even just a few semesters of a language–and so many �鶹��ý���� students have amazing language skills, that we hope that these tools will help students and advisors showcase their talents. Visualizing the paths taken by recent graduates also helps make it much less scary to plan for the job search!”

Students can meet to discuss how to use their languages with career advisors at the College for the Humanities and Social Sciences any time. The CHILL website is publicly accessible and will continue to serve as a career resource for students with language skills across all majors.

Curious what 14 languages �鶹��ý���� teaches? Click here to find out!

These students immersed themselves in Hebrew starting on day one of their first class, and quickly started to build comfort speaking to each other in the language. As soon as they have mastered the alphabet and basic vocabulary after a few weeks, faculty member Talya Schwarzer engages each Hebrew 101 student in a regular “Dialogue Journal,” an innovative conversational writing teaching technique that asks students to use Hebrew in an authentic communicative context without any outside assistance. Emphasizing that these journals between the students and the professor focus on communication, not on grammatical perfection, Schwarzer comments, “It is always interesting and new to see what each student chooses to write about. We ask questions, give answers, and get to know each other very well.”

Schwarzer’s class recently raised the communicative bar again as they interviewed local speakers of Hebrew for their Hebrew 101 course. Paired with conversation partners ranging from family members to on-campus faculty and local community leaders, the students composed questions and talked to their interviewees, focusing not just on using their best vocabulary and grammar, but also on understanding the interviewees’ personal experiences and following up on topics of interest. While one might expect such an activity to be reserved for speakers who have mastered the language, Schwarzer believes that it is essential to connect with representatives of the language and culture from the start. As she says, “The goal is to use everything we are learning in authentic ways to build communities” starting on Day 1.

Nerves aside and conversations complete, student feedback supports Schwarzer’s conviction. Following the project, one student commented, “I enjoyed being able to understand the interviewee’s responses to my questions” and another said, “The interview helped me overcome my anxiety of speaking Hebrew and really raised my confidence level. My personal goal is to learn to speak Hebrew since I plan to visit Israel and perhaps work there one day.” Friends and family members are happy to participate as interviewees and are often surprised that, after only one semester of Hebrew, students are able to carry on a basic conversation in Hebrew and understand the answers. The authenticity of Schwarzer’s individual project is a refreshing endeavor that supplies all the evidence she needs that her students are ready to connect across borders and build multilingual communities well beyond her class.

Funded by the and housed under the MLA’s new initiative, the grants provide up to $10,000 to support faculty members with the development of new structures, programs and resources that bolster the recruitment, retention and career readiness of undergraduate students, especially students of color, first-generation college students and Pell Grant recipients.

Led by Professor of World Languages and Cultures Elizabeth Emery, the �鶹��ý���� team – which also includes faculty members Kathleen Loysen, Wing Shan Ho, Thomas Herold, Enza Antenos and Pascale LaFountain – will use the funds to develop a cocurricular career resources hub, which will offer tools for defining career pathways for students in modern languages.

The recipients of Pathways Step Grants will present their projects at the 2025 MLA Annual Convention, to be held in January of 2025.

“We are honored and delighted to have been selected for a MLA Pathways grant,” says Emery. “The funding will support the construction of new resources, like a language careers calculator to help students understand how best to hone and leverage their language skills in the workplace, and improve communication with partners on campus and in local communities. We are particularly excited to improve the career prospects of multilingual students in New Jersey, a state in which more than 200 languages and dialects are spoken.”

�鶹��ý���� offers a diverse range of programs spanning 13 languages – Arabic, ASL, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. In addition to language study, students focus on the business practices, journalism, technology, health care, literature, cinema, music, art, cuisine and other cultural aspects of the countries in which these languages are spoken. They can major, minor or even double-major in individual languages, in translation studies or in �鶹��ý����’s bachelor’s in Language, Business and Culture program.

“Our World Languages and Cultures faculty are a dynamic and talented group who care deeply about the well-being and future success of our students,” says College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Peter Kingstone. “This project is a critical part of our effort to help students choose to study languages and see its value in the workplace.”

For more information on World Languages and Cultures at �鶹��ý����, visit .

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How To Look Up Classes
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  – updated on April 15th 2020.
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